Yes, believe it or not, there was a time when a ’45 wasn’t a weapon that killed people; it was a vinyl disc with spiral grooves that entertained with audio, musical, magic.
This entire recorded music thing was discovered by a white-haired Einstein-looking cat from New Jersey named Thomas Edison. While spinning, a lever with a pin or needle rested upon a vinyl cylinder. The result was audio sound or what we now call a recording. At the time they called it a gramophone record; later a phonograph record. It entertained the young and old, and for many thousands, it changed their lives.
I was slippin’ thru some sides (beatnik lingo for audio records) the other day and came across several gems… masterpieces… musical miracles… compositions of concrete… platters that really matter… in other words - flat-out great recorded music. Before electricity a motor inside a wooden box was wound with a hand crank and a circular wax tube that resembles an empty toilet paper tube of today would spin at a designated speed until the motor spring would unwind itself slowing to a halt. Later a 10-inch disc with cut grooves would spin on a 78-rpm turntable. A weighted arm with a needle tip would be placed down on the revolving disc and sound would be produced. As time went on, sizes changed for both performance length and clarity reasons; going from 10-inch, 78-rpm to a 12-inch, 33-1/3 rpm stereo (hi-fidelity/split audio/ left side, right side). As with most technology, a smaller record was produced that revolutionized pop music. It was the 7-inch, 45-rpm record with two sides that became the mp3 of its day. Anyone thirty-years old or older remembers allowing a 45-record to play over and over. Before long, multiple disc holders arrived allowing an individual to stack up to 10 records on top of one another for ten un-interrupted songs. Well, uninterrupted without skipping. Ha! Skipping was a common failure when a record became scratched or dented and the stylus or needle would get misaligned or stuck in a single groove. This resulted in the same part of a song playing over and over. This was a common flaw in the technology and would even happen live on the radio.
As we know, anything that is truly genius is usually special because of its simplicity. You can create a phonograph now while you read this article. Take a single sheet of paper and roll it into a circular cone shape. Put your ear to one end of the cone while dragging it across the desk or table where you’re sitting. Instantly you’ll hear the amplified or enhanced version of sound from the paper scratching and the sound being amplified.
Through a bit more trial and error, Mr. Edison found that if he took a wax cone and allowed a pin or needle to pierce the cone as he spoke loudly into one end, it would record his words permanently onto the wax cylinder. Supposedly, the first recording contained the voice of Edison himself reciting the nursery rhyme, “Mary had a little lamb.”
Thanks Mr. Edison for your genius. Now, let’s zoom forward fifty-years or so. Like any modern invention, there are going to be other very bright and inventive people who are going to take one or some aspect of the invention and blast it into another dimension. That’s where the songwriters come in.
The audio recording and future audio and musical advances carved the way for songwriters like me to endlessly write songs that remain for posterity. It never ceases to boggle my mind the number of arrangements, groupings, blends, alterations, combinations, mixtures, and permutations that one can use to create for what seems like never ending number of songs and compositions.
Through overwhelming plethora of artists, singers, and performers, the songwriter sows his /her seed. Scrutiny will show that true songwriters usually write many songs as opposed to one or two. It is often amazing to see the numbers of songs written by an individual writer. Not just songs however; I’m referring to GREAT!-songs. These musicians have a God-given knack for compiling fine, memorable pieces of music. Most of these writers go on what are called “runs.” Not unlike book authors, some songwriters have the ability to write one hit song after another for years sometimes. Just like the weather, cold spells do arrive for all of us. But some get hot again and again; while other heat-up and cool-down only once. Natural talent is so unpredictable, yet so great.
These songs were written by a few of the remaining, master ‘songsmiths’ of pop. In an effort to keep track of the many classic songwriters and songs the Songwriters Hall of Fame was created. So far there have been 400 inductees in the Hall of Fame, including legendary names such as Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Hal David and Burt Bacharach, John Fogerty, Bob Dylan, Isaac Hayes and David Porter, Carole King, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Sir Elton John, Bernie Taupin, Brian Wilson, James Taylor, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Curtis Mayfield, Kris Kristofferson, Leonard Cohen and many others. Notably the chairman of Songwriters Hall of Fame is Jimmy Webb; and rightly so!
This coming December 12 another vote will be held for new nominees to the Hall of Fame.
Take a look for yourself and hold an unofficial voting process and see how many forgotten writers you can come up with. The nominees are listed below, along with some examples of their biggest songs:
I’m purposely abstaining from including many rhythm and blues songwriters from this article for all the obvious reasons. African American songwriters of the nineteenth century rarely if ever received credit for their craft. In the 1950’s, 60’s, and 70’s Black performers were struggling just to get air-play and name recognition, let-alone having their names listed as the masters they truly were. They put the ringer behind the singer and the begin to the record spin. Fortunately, today, more and more African American hitmakers of the 50's, '60's, 70's, and 80's are getting their due by the Hall... good job SHOF.
